Browse local council websites for 15 minutes and make a big difference to PlanningAlerts.org.au

Photo by chezmichelle (flickr.com)

As you may know PlanningAlerts.org.au works by collecting development applications from many local council websites and republishes them in an easy to use way, notifying people of new applications in their area and in that way keeping you informed of things happening near you.

To do this we need to know where those applications are. So far, we know where around 60 local authorities keep their applications. There’s more than 500 local authorities that we don’t know about.

We’d like to know about a whole lot more so that PlanningAlerts can be useful to more Australians. That’s where you come in.

We’ve created a Google spreadsheet with all the local councils that we know about which we don’t yet support on PlanningAlerts.org.au and we’d like your help to fill it in.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmvYMal8CGUsdG1tM0lEWUctR194eGN6bUh0VGFfc1E&hl=en

This is what you do. Go to the spreadsheet.

  1. Pick a council that hasn’t had all its details filled in yet (“DA’s online?” column is empty). The councils are ordered with the big councils (lots of people) at the top. So, start with those near the top if possible.
  2. Follow the link to the council website (“Website” column)
  3. Find where they store their development applications
  4. Fill in the details in “DA’s online?”, “as HTML”, “website for DA notice” columns. “DA’s online” just says whether the council publishes the development applications online. Hopefully that will be a yes. “as HTML” should be “Yes” when they publish it as a regular web page. Fill in “No” if they publish the information in PDF or Microsoft Word documents for instance. The “website for DA notice” is just a link to the page on the council website where the development applications are stored.
  5. Repeat for a few councils
  6. Add a comment to this blog post to let us and everyone else know you helped out
  7. Give yourself a big pat on the back.

Thank you in advance!

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14 Comments

  1. Posted June 27, 2010 at 11:36 am | Permalink

    Just added Yarra Ranges, someone else beat me to Knox! ;-)

    Sadly got to go out now, will try for more later..

  2. Posted June 27, 2010 at 11:53 am | Permalink

    Nope – can’t see the DA for Moonee Valley

  3. Dirk Provin
    Posted June 27, 2010 at 1:23 pm | Permalink

    Did some work for Cowra, sort of. #246

  4. p858snake
    Posted June 28, 2010 at 6:37 pm | Permalink

    Added Moreton Bay Regional Council to the end of the list.

  5. Michael
    Posted June 28, 2010 at 11:24 pm | Permalink

    Kiama (A)

  6. Posted July 1, 2010 at 2:26 pm | Permalink

    Brisbane City Council needs to be added if not done already. Much development going on in a chaotic manner here.

  7. Julian Kennedy
    Posted July 2, 2010 at 12:44 am | Permalink

    I work for Quest Community Newspapers in Brisbane and would like to use a map of Moreton Bay Regional Council area showing where the development is occuring. Would be happy to credit to Open Australia but wondering if such a map can be generated. With planning alerts its within a 2km radius so would have to get multiple alerts and try a bit of patchwork job. Also not sure how to put development apps on google maps. Is there an easier way.

  8. Martin English
    Posted July 8, 2010 at 9:10 pm | Permalink

    I was looking for the DA notifications page for southern Downs QLD and found a reference to http://www.smarteda.qld.gov.au – This may be usefull for SOME QLD Planning Authorities ?

    BTW, I’ve done a few others :)

  9. Joshy
    Posted July 29, 2010 at 6:13 pm | Permalink

    Did a few for ya. Hope it goes well.

  10. Posted October 1, 2010 at 8:33 pm | Permalink

    We’re close enough to taste it, but it’s not there yet.

  11. Posted December 24, 2010 at 5:12 pm | Permalink

    I work for Quest Community Newspapers in Brisbane and would like to use a map of Moreton Bay Regional Council area showing where the development is occuring. Would be happy to credit to Open Australia but wondering if such a map can be generated. With planning alerts its within a 2km radius so would have to get multiple alerts and try a bit of patchwork job. Also not sure how to put development apps on google maps. Is there an easier way.

  12. henare
    Posted January 2, 2011 at 7:53 pm | Permalink

    Hi Kim,

    Thanks for your question, have a look at our previous blog post about embedding a Google Map on your website and let us know how you get on.

    If you have any trouble, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

    Cheers, Henare

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